Tag Archives: Grammy

Conal Fowkes is a fine fellow. He plays piano — delicately or stomping; he is a first-class accompanist. He is a splendidly romping string bassist (think Pops Foster with a subtle harmonic sense), a compelling singer, arranger, and more.

He’s at home with Woody Allen and Wynton Marsalis, with John Gill and Bette Midler, with Sam Manning and Scott Joplin, at The Ear Inn and the Cafe Carlyle. He can play New Orleans funk circa 1911 or post-bop or sweet melodies or naughty calypso, rocking salsa, or deep Cuban music.

He has elegance, taste, and wit, but isn’t pretentious in person or in his music.

I first heard him in 2006, at The Cajun, but millions of people have heard him singing and playing on the soundtrack of MIDNIGHT IN PARIS — for which he won a Grammy. Virtue rewarded, I think.

All these nice — and true — words are because a friend pointed out Conal’s new website, which is nicely designed and worth a visit. I’m waiting for the next Conal Fowkes CD, which I hope will come soon.

For me, the 2012 San Diego Thanksgiving Dixieland Jazz Festival — or whatever more informal name you might know it by, such as the San Diego Jazz Fest — started with a shuffle. A Shuffle is a good thing when it’s created by the Yerba Buena Stompers, a band full of power and delicacy, deeply rooted in the great New Orleans traditions.

So it was a special pleasure to read Conal’s most recent good news, which I pass along to you. He deserves the award and a great deal more.

It is with great pleasure that I can announce that I, along with my dear friends and colleagues Eddy Davis, Yrving Yeras and Lisa Yeras, won a GRAMMY at the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media for my work on the Oscar winning film Midnight In Paris. I can be heard throughout the movie as the voice and piano of Cole Porter, played by French actor Yves Heck, and also as part of the Yerason Trio, playing “Barcarolle” by Offenbach, with Yrving and Lisa Yeras (violins) in an arrangement written for the movie by Eddy Davis. The news came as a big surprise but nevertheless a great thrill!

Let me take this opportunity also to tell you of a few up-coming gigs I have in the NY /Tristate area.

Sunday, Feb. 17th, I’ll be playing in duo with the amazing, ridiculously talented, Scott Robinson (various reeds, brass & sonic devices). Shanghai Jazz, Madison NJ. 3:30pm-5:30pm http://www.shanghaijazz.com/ This is an event run by the New Jersey Jazz Society so it doesn’t appear on the Shanghai Jazz website, but we WILL be there!

*And a word from JAZZ LIVES: “veteran singer Judi Marie Canterino” sang duets with Jimmy Rushing at The Half Note — Spring and Hudson Streets — when I was there in 1972. That’s a seriously impressive credential.

If you read JAZZ LIVES and the name Dan Morgenstern doesn’t ring an entirely lyrical bell, then something in the cosmos is surely out of synch.

I can only speak for myself — as someone who, since the early Seventies, read his liner notes so closely as to unintentionally memorize them, someone who looked for his articles and reviews in books and jazz magazines, someone who tuned in to WBGO on Sunday nights to hear his presentations on “Jazz From the Archives” as a special treat.

And everyone I know in the field — musicians and writers — shares my enthusiastic gratitude to Dan during his illustrious work (since 1976) as the director of Rutgers-Newark’s Institute of Jazz Studies in Dana Library. And the larger world has noticed, too — Dan has won eight Grammy awards.

It’s always especially rewarding to be able to celebrate someone while that person is around to hear the tributes in person . . .

On Tuesday, April 17, 2012, from 4-8 PM, at the Newark Club, One Newark Center, 22nd Floor, Newark, New Jersey 07102, there will be a celebration of Dan Morgenstern’s Life in Jazz — with cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, music, and entertainment. The Institute of Jazz Studies at Dana Library at Rutgers University – Newark will commemorate Dan’s contributions to jazz and the university with a retirement event in his honor.

Dan’s musical friends — Randy Sandke, Daryl Sherman, Anat Cohen, Joe Peterson, and Dan Faulk — will be performing through the evening, and there will be three special musical tributes. The price of a single ticket is $75.00, and you can RSVP by contacting Elsa Alves at 973.353.3798 or emailing Merve Fejzula at fejzula@andromeda.rutgers.edu. If you can make it, please let Elsa or Merve know as soon as possible — and you might also want to make a contribution to support the Dan Morgenstern Endowment Fund (completely tax-deductible). Checks should be made out to Rutgers University, and sent to

Elsa Alves, Institute of Jazz Studies; John Cotton Dana Library; Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey; 185 University Avenue; Newark, New Jersey 07102-1814.